It's not too late to start strategically prepping for recruiting and retaining physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers in 2015.
While it can be tempting to spend the final weeks of the year relaxing, and enjoying the holidays, now is the time to begin drawing up plans for next year. It's true no one can see the future, but here are some smart moves that will likely pay off in 2015.
1. Start Recruiting for In-Demand Positions
There will be a rush on billing and coding specialists as the October 1, 2015 deadline for ICD-10 nears. Now is the time to put reqs out, if you haven't already. Also, the need for nurses with special training (APRNs) has never been higher. Nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, and nurse midwives are all expected to be in demand for the foreseeable future.
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2.Make Your Workplace Appealing to Young Workers
It is predicted that 2015 will be the year when Millennials will begin to outnumber Baby Boomers in the workplace. If you haven't already made your organization the kind of place that appeals to young workers, the time is now.
While some criticize Millennials as self-absorbed, lazy and narcissistic, this is just not so, says Michelle K. Lee, consultant with talent search firm Witt/Kieffer. "I find them to be quite engaged and interested in contributing," she told me. "They just have a different approach."
Millennials can be hard workers—the trick is to engage them on their own terms.
Make flexibility and inclusiveness a part of your corporate culture—9 in 10 Millennials surveyed said they want a job where they can be themselves at work. For example, old-fashioned restrictions on visible tattoos and piercings may be preventing qualified young workers from accepting an offer from your organization. It may be time to consider retiring policies like this.
3. Rethink the Use of Personality Tests in Hiring
Personality assessments promise to uncover everything from how well your candidate will get along with his potential team to his hidden talents. But nothing can take the place of a good behavioral interview when choosing a candidate for your organization.
Many HR departments depend on personality tests to gauge a candidate's ability to sell, his openness to new experiences, leadership potential, or likelihood of fitting into an organization, among other things.
Ultimately, though, what these tests grant is a false sense of security in your hiring decision—that you know what kind of a person the candidate is, that the candidate will fit in with the rest of the team, that he or she will have a pleasant demeanor, that you are not hiring a bully.
Unfortunately, a personality test cannot accurately tell you any of these things. "We do have a measure of social desirability," says Cheryl Oxley, a consultant with the corporate solutions team at Hogan Assessments, which offers a multiple-choice employee personality assessment. But the test does not "get into the world of personality disorders."
4. Consider a Benefits Audit
Most organizations don't know if everyone covered by their benefits programs actually should be covered. Closing the gap could save your organization's millions of dollars.
"On average, 5%–8% of [dependents] are found to be ineligible [during a dependent audit]," says Mike Daugherty, director of corporate benefits at Baptist Health, an 18-facility healthcare system based in KY. It found that about 9% its benefits recipients were ineligible, which translated as an annual savings of nearly $3.5 million.
If you spend a few days this holiday season researching these topics and drawing up plans, your organization will be a few steps ahead of the game this winter.
Lena J. Weiner is an associate editor at HealthLeaders Media.